Wadi es Sebua: MRA-EGY-Seb002

Type Sample Item

Geographic Location

Historical note about the site/monument: Dedicated to the god Amun, the temple was built by Ramses II (New Kingdom), and is located in the ancient region of Nubia. In front of the temple there’s a line of sphinxes, from which the Arabs gave it the designation of “Valley of the Lions”. The temple is one of the largest built by the pharaoh in Nubia, with a complex structure of two open courts, an interior pillared court and an inside area, carved in the rock. Two of the three original pylons have, meanwhile, disappeared. The third presents a decoration composed by reliefs where the pharaoh is represented punishing his enemies and making offerings to the gods. Other scenes, depicted over the walls of the hypostyle hall, preserve most of its original colours. The temple was converted into a Christian church in the 5th century AD. By then the reliefs were covered with plasters and then repainted with representations of God and saints. In 1964 this temple and two others in Wadi es-Sebua were moved to another site, in order to be preserved from the flooding’s of the Aswan Dam.

Further reading:
Emery, Walter B. and KIRWAN, L. P., The Excavations and Survey Between Wadi Es-Sebua and Adindan 1929-1931, vols. I and II, Cairo, Government Press, Service des Antiquites de L'Egypte, 1935.

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